Australia Day 2012

What is Australia Day?
Once again it is the 26th of January - Australia Day ~ our national day. It is a day when we celebrate our country as a nation and join in festivities and ceremonies. It is a day when people get together and have a barbie, wear some Australiana and bend the elbow.

 

Above: The Australian flag and some of our native wildlife.

From the top left-hand corner going in a clock wise direction:
The Kookaburra, Bandicoot, Platypus, Koala, Leadbeater's Possum, Echidna, Wombat, Fairy Penguins, Kangaroo.

Why the 26th January?
It was the date of arrival of the "First Fleet" ~ In 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip landed in Sydney Cove and so began settlement. The First Fleet consisted of eleven ships - The Alexander, The Borrowdale, The Charlotte, The Fishburn The Friendship The Golden Grove, The Lady Penrhyn, The Prince of Wales, The Scarborough, H.M.S. Sirius and H.M.S. Supply.

Above: The Founding of Australia. By Capt. Arthur Phillip R.N. Sydney Cove, Jan. 26th 1788
Painted in 1937 by Algernon Talmage (1871 – 1939)


We Are Australian







Dream-Time: According to Aboriginal belief, long, long ago in the far distant past; the great spirit ancestors of the Dreamtime created everything living ~ the people, the birds, the animals and fish, the rivers and waterholes, hills and rocks. The Dreamtime is the story of creation.

Convict: A person found guilty of something - often as little as stealing a loaf of bread or a political prisoner sent to transportation to Australia.
Digger: Aussie soldier
Bushy: Person who lives in the outback, the "bush"
Battler: Someone who works hard and barely scrapes by and holds their head up high in the face of adversity
Albert Namatjira: Famous Aboriginal painter of Australian landscapes
Clancy: Drover immortalised in the Banjo's poem "Clancy of the Overflow"
Ned Kelly: Famous Australian bushranger
Matilda: Name given to a bushman's "swag"
The Rock: Ayers Rock/Uluru




THIS LAND OF OURS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This land of ours so red and vast
Doth stretch before the eye
And show unto me all the beauty
Of a far and distant past.

Of gums so tall
And eucalypt
They tower o'er me
And sweet their fragrance to inhale
Their beauty for to see.

Oh yes, this precious land of mine
With all your beauty free
And listen to the sweet carol
Of birds in fancy free.

My country you are more to me
Than earth of fire or sky
For I shall love this land of ours
Until the day I die.

 

Today's quote: Love your country. Your country is the land where your parents sleep, where is spoken that language in which the chosen of your heart, blushing, whispered the first word of love; it is the home that God has given you that by striving to perfect yourselves therein you may prepare to ascend to him. ~Giuseppe Mazzini